Mercy to the Hateful
by Escoger
Summary: In spite of the obstacles and hatred facing him, Naruto grew to become a hero to the world, a redeemer, a savior. In contrast, his sister Naruko looks at those who hate her and asks why they deserve mercy. When she leaves Konoha, Naruto decides that he has one more person to save.
1. Chapter 1

**Mercy to the Hateful**

**Chapter One**

**Prologue Part 1**

**Disclaimer: I am not Masashi Kishimoto, nor do I own or control Naruto in any way, shape or form.**

It was a quiet and warm day in Konoha. In spite of the destruction wrought by Orochimaru's recent invasion, there was only the calm bustle of a normal day. Even in the Hokage's tower it was peaceful. People went about their business, working an average day's work in the calm, cheery complacency that today was going to be perfectly ordinary.

For the young Jinchurriki in the Hokage's Office though, any chance of an ordinary day had just been shattered. It was with horrified eyes that Naruto Uzumaki stared down at the plain, long scroll that Lady Tsunade had given him after telling him in a gentle, understanding sort of voice that his sister Naruko Uzumaki and his teammate Sasuke Uchiha had abandoned him and all of Konoha, leaving only the scroll behind.

Slowly, every word feeling like a kunai stabbing him, he began to read...

...X...

To Whomever Should Find This Scroll,

My name is Naruko Uzumaki.

My hobbies are reading certain unmentionable novels and sparring with strong opponents.

I like the heated rush I get when testing my limits and the taste of freshly-cooked ramen. I like two people, my brother, Naruto, and his former teammate, Sasuke.

I dislike...no, I hate Konoha.

That is why...well, let me start from the beginning.

I, Naruko Uzumaki, was born 12 years ago, on the day that the Kyuubi attacked Konoha. Many died, including my parents. My brother and I survived. Naruto and I were, at first, taken to live in an orphanage. This lasted until it was judged that we were able to take care of ourselves, when we were given a small apartment to live in on our own.

My brother was a good brother, who loved me very much, and I loved him, too. He took care of me, teaching his love of Ramen. Of course, I took care of him and I taught...well, I wish I could say that I taught him how to study, but that never happened. We were very different. He liked to prank others, joke around, slack off on his work. I spent my time reading, training and, frankly, being utterly antisocial. The only things we had in common were a love of Ramen and a desire to be ninjas. He wanted to be the Hokage, so everyone would acknowledge him. I...I really just liked fighting, especially against strong opponents.

All things considered, it was a happy existence, but it was a lonely one, although it wasn't until a few years later that I realized why that was.

Then, the Uchiha Massacre occurred. According to the textbooks I read after the fact, 236 people died that night, men, women, and children alike. The only survivor was Sasuke Uchiha.

I remember how the girls in my class talked and whispered afterward, never to me of course. I was a short, plain girl with my only distinguishing features being my short red hair and a set of six whisker-like scars on my face. I kept to myself and never made any friends. But I heard them whispering about the boy, talking about how tragic he must be, his hurt, sad soul, how he needed someone to open his heart and make him feel loved again, how cool he must be, how hot he was, all sorts of stuff, most of which was utter nonsense. They all wanted to be the gentle soul to heal his wounded heart, And for five straight years, jockeyed for position over who would be the closest one to him.

I...honestly didn't look into it that much at the time, focusing on my studies and training. The one thing I noticed was that, for all the attention everyone gave Sasuke, he looked surprisingly alone.

Then, one day, I was told to spar with him.

Now, unlike my brother, I had taken my studying and training rather seriously. I had many difficulties controlling my chakra, much like Naruto, but I had managed to drag myself to the top third of the class, a decent rank, if I say so myself.

Sasuke crushed me. From the start of the fight, it couldn't have been more than 30 seconds before I was on the ground, flat on my back. His speed, his skill, his efficiency, all dwarfed my own. It was incredible. The defeat should have been humbling, but I actually found it rather exciting to face such a strong opponent, so I challenged him to a rematch a week later, training myself as hard as I could.

I fought him at one of the training grounds in the evening, as day faded into twilight. It was just the two of us, alone in a small plain of grass. The wind whipped around us, and I said, my head held high, "Prepare yourself to face the very strength of a storm! For I am Naruko Uzumaki, and you will taste the full sting of my vengeance!"

He didn't say anything to that. However, he did proceed to crush me in about thirty seconds flat, again.

So I challenged him for another rematch the following week. After another defeat, I challenged him again, and again, and again. I never beat him, but slowly I was able to start drawing out the matches just a little bit more. It grew to be a tradition. Every week, we would spar and he would defeat me. We didn't talk, but every week I would meet him at one of the training grounds and we would do our level best to beat the other until they were a mass of bruises. I suppose that, for introverts like ourselves, it was what passed for hanging out.

...X...

It was the night that Naruto and I graduated from the academy that I finally discovered why the village had never seemed to like me all that much.

It started out a very bittersweet night. Both he and I had taken the exams, and while I had done a tad better overall, he hadn't done too poorly himself. Then came the Bunshin test, the bane of our existence.

I swear, whoever came up with that jutsu can just go eat a lit explosive tag and die. I was never able to figure out why, but for whatever reason, for the longest time whenever I'd perform that jutsu, no matter how much chakra I pumped into it, I'd always end up with something that vaguely resembled a half-dead version of me. Naruto had the same problem.

However, through months of practice before the exam, endless toil, I had just barely managed to come up with a way to do it. Sure, it was a bit pale, and it drained almost all of my chakra, but I could do it, although I'd be an utterly exhausted wreck afterward. As such, I barely managed to pass the test, and with it, the overall examination.

Naruto didn't.

After my exam, I waited until my brother finished his, panting from having to exert myself so much. As his was right after mine, I didn't have to wait too long though. It was barely ten minutes before Naruto came out, his expression a mixture of dejection and that stubborn determination that was one of his best qualities. Before I could say anything, he said, "Sorry, Naruko, I didn't pass."

I felt I'd been punched in the gut. Sure, I knew that this Jutsu was our bane...but I'd never expected my brother to fail. He might have been the bottom of the class, but I knew perfectly well that that was only because he spent so much of his time goofing off. When he was serious, he was awesome indeed. As such, my only response was a shocked, "Oh..."

"Yeah..." Naruto scratched the tip of his nose, offering a sheepish smile. "...the bunshin got me. I was doing alright before then, but I couldn't do a bunshin. So..."

As he trailed off, he left behind a thick silence. For once, he had nothing to say, and I was deep in thought. Sure, like my brother, I had always wanted to be a ninja, but... Finally, I said, "Then I'm not going to graduate either! I'm not going to abandon you as I move onward, so I'll wait until you pass too. Then the two of us will be genin together!"

Naruto shook his head. "No way, that's stupid. Besides," he brightened. "Instructor Mizuki said that there's a secret way you can pass the exam. He's going to show me tonight. But, even if he doesn't, you're not giving up! How would I become Hokage anyway if I couldn't catch up to my own sister?"

"Alright, then you pass Mizuki's exam tonight, Naruto," I said fiercely, fired up by my brother's words. "You're going to be a great ninja, I believe it!"

"That's right!" He shouted, pumping his fist in the air. "I'm Naruto Uzumaki, the next Hokage, and no stupid exam is going to stop me, believe it!"

Then we bumped fists, before saying goodbye and going off on our separate ways.

He was right, of course. I was being childish to even consider giving up, so I wished him luck... In hindsight of course, I was being an even bigger idiot to think that there was a 'secret way to graduate'. I chalk that one up to a mixture of emotional and physical exhaustion. As such, I went home and went to bed early for the night, hoping my brother would succeed.

In the middle of the night, Naruto returned home, covered in blood that was not his own. It turned out that the 'secret way to pass' led to him passing after all, even if it was in a completely different manner. Although tired, I jumped out of bed, clad in my pale blue nightgown, and gave him a congratulatory hug. We made some ramen, and Naruto told me of how he had learned some strange super-variant of the Bunshin called the 'Kage Bunshin'...and that we each had half of a demon sealed inside us, the Kyuubi.

Suddenly, a lot of things made sense. The hateful looks, the whispers in the stores, the strange whisker-like scars on my face...they finally had an explanation. I had a demon inside me, and the villagers hated me for it. I wondered what Sasuke would think of it, or if he already knew. I decided to keep it a secret like Naruto, and spent the rest of the night celebrating with my brother...

...but when I walked through the streets of Konoha the next day, on the way to the academy for the team assignments, I knew what was behind the whispers...and my resentment grew.

At the academy, we were all sorted into our various teams. Naruto, Sasuke and Sakura had all been assigned into Team 7, while I had been assigned to Team 4 along with two boys by the name of Genji Itou and Hikaru Morimoto. This had me rather less than pleased. For one, both my brother and my fr...favorite sparring partner were on a different team, and for two, Genji and Hikaru sucked.

Hikaru was a short brown-haired boy, who had a tendency toward being loud about everything, and for some odd reason always wore a brown, leaf-patterned kimono. I would have told him he looked a little too much like a girl, but that dubious honor was taken by Genji, who was tall and slender, with long blond hair that went all the way down past his butt. Heck, even though I'd started to let my red hair grow, it was only just past my shoulders. If it weren't for the fact that he preferred wearing skull-themed clothing, I would have had a very hard time keeping a straight face when he flirted with girls...which was all the time. Both of them were close to the bottom in the rankings among the graduates, and unlike my brother (who is awesome), it showed. When we sparred, even if it was both of them against me at the same time, I always won.

They didn't like me, and now that I knew about the Kyuubi, I was pretty sure I understood why. They were lazy little morons who thought I was the fox. They never said anything directly, but I knew in my heart. Luckily, we'd managed to work together well enough to pass Masashi-sensei's exam.

Masashi-sensei was the only bright spot in the team. He was nice to me, even smiling when he talked, and treated me the same as he treated Genji and Hikaru. He was an imposing man, built much like the infamous Maito Guy, but with short red hair and goggles, wearing a standard jonin vest instead of Guy's strange jumpsuits. Really, to use some of the words of the girls in the academy, he was 'yum'.

He was a very by-the-book sort of man, having us focus on the basics constantly, while having us go on D-rank missions, lots and lots of D-ranks missions. We must have caught that forsaken cat three times before we got anywhere close to doing a C-rank. And in the meantime, we worked on exercises to build up our chakra control, basic academy jutsu, and sparring with him and each other. I grew stronger, but it had very little glamour or excitement, very little at all.

I needed more.

...X...

Over the past several years, my sparring with Sasuke had continued week in and week out. It had taken me a very long time, but I had gone from being continually stomped by him, to making him have to put a little effort into battling me, and now, even if he'd always beat me in the end, he wouldn't do it unscathe. And it would take him quite some time to pull out the win, even with his newfound Sharingan.

Because of the length of our battles, slowly but surely, we had started to talk during and after our matches, and not just the regular posturing of battle...not that I ever quit that. As such, as I leapt over a leg sweep, I asked Sasuke what it was like being on Team 7, before hurling a blunted kunai at his midsection.

He deflected it of course, sending it spinning off into one of the trees. Immediately, he sprang at me, taking advantage of my outstretched hand to grab me and hurl me over his shoulder. Simultaneously, he said that they were adequate, he supposed.

I managed to right myself, only to see that he had vanished. I had just enough time to whirl around before he buried a fist into my right side. I didn't take this lying down, trying to counter, and we each did our level best to pound the other at point-blank range with a rapid bombardment of fists. Eventually, I retreated, by means of substituting with the kunai I had thrown earlier. Breathing deeply, my chest heaving as I gave myself a little respite, I asked, "Anything else about them?"

At that, he shrugged, saying, "Kakashi is lazy, Naruto is an idiot, and Sakura is an annoying fangirl."

At that, I dashed at him, determined to make him rue the day he had spoken ill of Naruto Uzumaki. I think that that was what he'd been counting on, as after a quick but intense exchange of blows, I was down on my back. His cheek was a mass of bruises, though, and since a thin trickle of blood came from his mouth, I decided it was worth it. Still, he was the one smirking in triumph as we did the symbol of reconciliation with one another, and I had no choice but to admit that the Almighty Uzumaki Fury, had fallen in battle again.

Panting a little through bruised lips, enjoying the high that came from a good fight, I said, "So, Sakura's still fangirling you, eh? She hasn't changed much since the academy, has she?" To be honest, I had never much liked the girl, with how she treated my brother.

Sasuke smirked, his red eyes fading back to their normal black. "Maybe a little."

I wondered if he liked her more than his words seemed to imply, but I changed the subject, telling him about my team. Sasuke listened to me griping about how much Genji and Hikaru would always whine and snipe at me behind Masashi-sensei's back, before saying, "It doesn't matter what people think of you. You are a strong Kunoichi. That is what matters."

I felt a warm glow in my heart at his words of praise-he rarely had any, of course, something my brother often complained about. Then I wondered what he would think of me if he knew about the Kyuubi. I was tempted to tell him, but held it back in the end, instead saying, "You're very strong too. I don't know what I would do without an opponent like you."

Wiping the trail of blood away from his mouth, he smirked, saying nothing, but I think he agreed with me. As we left, making our separate ways home, I was very happy.

**Author's Note: **I currently have four chapters written, but will only be posting them at a rate of once every two weeks. I plan to fast-forward through part one, as it will mostly be an introduction. Part two is the real meat of the story. Read and review as you will. I appreciate all criticism and feedback, even if I don't like it at the time.

This whole story is rather loosely based on a challenge by hihiozabimaru called 'The Monster They Created'. He is assisting me in the writing of this story.

Now, I'm sure quite a few are looking at this story and wondering why I have started writing a new Naruto story, when I haven't touched any of my Harry Potter stories in about two years. The answer is sadly that I will not be finishing any of my current stories. I read them and am repulsed by poor my writing was when I started them, how full of character-bashing they are, and how out of character some of the characters are. However, I am working on a revamp of 'Cursed to Relive' that is currently 2 chapters in.

**11/24/2014: Edited to clarify that this is a letter. **


	2. Chapter 2

**Mercy to the Hateful**

**Chapter One**

**Prologue Part 2**

**Disclaimer: I am not Masashi Kishimoto, nor do I own or control Naruto in any way, shape or form.**

Faster than I would have believed came the Chunin exams. It didn't come as much of a surprise that Team 7 was nominated, as Sasuke was Rookie of the Year, my brother was awesome, and Sakura...wasn't utterly useless. However, when my team was nominated, I was surprised. While I felt I was capable of taking the Chunin exams, Hikaru and Genji was less than confident in. Both of them had improved since we first became a team, but neither were anywhere near capable of fighting evenly with me.

However, if Masashi-sensei felt we could do it, then perhaps I was missing something. So I decided to give it a try, but not before warning the two boys not to screw anything up. Glaring mulishly at me, they said that they were going to do the best they could, whatever I said.

And so, the next day, the exams began for Team 4...and they also came to a crashing end. We made it into the first phase of the exam, where it was necessary to take a incredibly-hard test of ten questions. I'd like to say that I was able to answer them all myself, but frankly, it was too difficult for me to answer any of them. Eventually, although it took me a while, I realized that that was the point, and I was supposed to cheat to pass the test.

Unfortunately, I had only learned the basic academy jutsu so far...save for my brother's infamous 'Sexy no Jutsu', so I was in rather a quandary.

It took me a while, but eventually I realized that the answer was rather simple-I just had to wait, giving the idiots time to be eliminated, and then copy the closest person's answer sheet. Simple enough with a Kunai up my sleeve to reflect off of-I was particularly glad to have copied my brother that day and worn a jumpsuit, albeit a tan one rather than one that was orange...or worse, green.

It worked, and we made it to the final question, the one which Proctor Ibiki said if we missed, we would never be able to become Chunin again. I was terrified, especially because cheating was no longer an option, but in the end, I decided to try for it.

I never got the chance. Before I could even hear what the question was, Genji, sweat dripping down his stupid long hair, had said that he was going to give up, and try again next time. As such, all three of us were disqualified.

The moment we were out of the room, I grabbed Genji by the scruff of the neck and slammed him against one of the walls. Trying my best to suppress my rage, I bit out, "What...Were...You...Thinking?"

"I'm sorry!" blubbered the boy, tears streaming down his face. "I...I got scared! I didn't want to fail, but that doesn't mean I want to risk us never becoming a Chunin!"

At that, I positively snarled, "Well, maybe if you weren't so utterly useless, then maybe we would have passed the exams!"

"Leave him alone," said Hikaru, tapping me on the shoulder. In a consultatory manner, he said, "You know as well as I do that we weren't going to pass, even if he'd have said nothing. We had no chance of answering that question without cheating. There's always next time."

I was in no mood for being patronized like I was a child, so I retorted nastily, "Yeah, you're right. There was no chance for any of you to pass, but I could have made it if I hadn't been held back by you moronic goons!" Letting go of Genji, I smirked. "Did either of you actually answer any of the questions at all?"

I knew there that I'd hit the mark, as Hikaru's tan face turned positively red as he said, "Maybe we could have, if you didn't keep the answers to yourself, shoved up your ass with the rest of your head!"

I was just about to punch him for his remark when Masashi-sensei said, his voice thundering, "What is going on here!?"

The three of us looked at each other nervously, then Hikaru said, "Well, you see..."

As Hikaru explained what had happened, Masashi looked more and more unhappy, before finally saying, "I am very disappointed with all of you, Especially you, Naruko."

"Why me?" I asked, confused.

"Hikaru, Genji, leave us alone for a bit. This should be private." Waiting for them to leave, he then gave me a hard look, like I was a stupid daughter who had failed a particularly simple task. "You said you knew the whole time that Genji and Hikaru never had a chance...but did you even consider trying to help them?"

I shook my head. "No, but I was having a hard enough time myself. Besides, how would I have communicated the answers to them?"

Masashi-sensei shrugged at that, his voice gentle but his eyes cold as he said, "It is not a question of whether or not it was possible. It's that you didn't even consider the possibility of helping your team, even though you knew they wouldn't be able to complete the task. Then you blamed them for their inability to do it themselves."

"But I can't be expected to do everything for them," I argued. "Surely they should work so they can do it themselves."

He sighed, frowning deeply. "Indeed they should, eventually, but although you are a very skilled Kunoichi, I nominated you all as a team. You would pass and fail as a team, and in this case, you failed. Now, I'm going to give you some time to yourself, and I want you to think about what I said."

With that, he left, leaving me alone to my thoughts. I hated it, but he did have a very good point...maybe I was being too harsh on the boys. After all, I never bothered to help them all that much, so why should I be surprised when they failed? I didn't like them, and it was obvious that they didn't like me. But if I ever wanted to be a Chunin, they needed to become stronger, so I would have to help them.

So resolved, I decided to find Masashi-sensei, so that he might help me figure out what to do next. I found him in a seedy bar nearby, talking with a beautiful brunette woman alone in a corner. I was about to make my presence known, when what he said froze the blood in my veins.

"...so, like I said, I've got the Kyuubi bitch on my genin team. What great luck, eh?"

The woman gasped at that. "Oh, wow...what is she like?"

Masashi snorted. "She's a stuck-up brat who thinks that she's better than everyone else on her team."

"Why even bother teaching her, then?" she wondered aloud. "I mean, you'd just be making the damn fox stronger."

Masashi-sensei said, his voice stern, "When I started training genin, I swore that I would never let my personal views get in the way of doing my duty, even if she is the Kyuubi." He paused, smirking. "That said, if she got herself killed on a mission by being an arrogant bitch, I think I could live with that."

I didn't need to hear anymore. Without saying anything, I turned around and left the restaurant, at first walking, then jogging, then eventually running flat out through the market, not caring where I was going. All the while, those passing by whispered and watched me, their eyes narrowing at the sight of me.

Finally, I found myself alone in a deserted alleyway. Hugging myself tightly, I laughed bitterly. It was that day that I finally realized that if all of Konoha hated me, then that meant that ALL of Konoha hated me, even Masashi-sensei.

The only two people who liked me it seemed were Naruto and Sasuke. Everyone else, they were watching me with fearful, wary eyes, some concealing their hatred behind warm smiles while others sneered as I passed. Only those two could be trusted, nobody else.

Even though the day was warm then, for some reason, I was freezing cold.

...X...

Team 4 spent the next several weeks focusing on relearning the basics, teamwork, basic chakra exercises, D-rank missions. I worked hard, until exhaustion even, but my heart was no longer in it. I felt like I was just going through the motions.

My malaise wasn't helped by how it seemed like Naruto and Sasuke had suddenly vanished off the face of the earth. Both of them were constantly training for the Chunin Exam Finals, and it was hard enough finding any time to spend with Naruto, and we lived in the same apartment. Sasuke spoke to me exactly once, and that was only to apologize to me for being able to make our sparring sessions on account of the finals. After that, I didn't see him at all.

I never apologized to my teammates, not that they seemed to care. It was clear now that there was no bond between us.

The next several weeks passed by in a blur, until the day of the Chunin exam finals. I made sure to watch from the crowd. I may not have made it through the exams, but I was able to cheer on Naruto and Sasuke in their matches. I still wished I could have been in there with them, though.

The finals turned out to be far more than anybody could have predicted. The first three matches had gone off without incident, save for my brother beating up Neji. I did say he was awesome, after all. But then Sasuke had his matchup with Gaara...

I was awestruck by how much Sasuke had improved in that month of training. His speed had gone from quick, to quite frankly, blinding. And the way his newly-toned muscles moved...I found myself a little bit dry in the mouth. Surely, I thought, this Gaara stood no chance against Sasuke like this.

The battle was fierce indeed, Sasuke was in top form today, but his opponent was incredibly tough as well, with an amazing defense. It went back and forth for a while, then Sasuke managed to penetrate the dome of sand that Gaara used to defend himself, causing the Sand-nin to enter a state of seeming hysteria.

Then, for some reason, I started to see flower petals drifting lazily through the wind...

When I came to, the battle was raging in and around the arena, but no longer between genin, but Full-fledged ninja from the sound and leaf villages, in a mad frenzy of battle, while atop the roof where the two kages had once stood was a giant cube of purple flame.

I was still groggy, but my fighting instincts told me that if there were enemy ninja nearby, my duty was to fight them. As such, I pretended to be unconscious for a moment longer, then leapt at the nearest Sound-nin, sinking one of my kunai into his neck from behind.

He clutched his neck with a gurgle, blood spurting out from his wound, before falling to the ground, dead.

I remember staring at him, at his pale skin and short red hair, his bangs almost concealing a cross-shaped scar. His pale blue eyes were wide open, seeing nothing. In a moment that seemed an eternity, I realized that I had killed him. That because of me, he would breathe no more. I had undergone some training to prepare for it in the academy, the first time you take someone's life, but I had never done it before. It was a surreal moment.

That moment was promptly interrupted when no less than three Sound ninja attacked me at once. I tried to fend them off, making use of every bit of skill, strength and speed I had earned in my training and sparring with Sasuke.

It wasn't enough, in under a minute, I was covered in wounds, my back against the wall. Then one of them summoned a giant spear of rock and hurled it at me. I didn't have enough time to dodge before it impaled me through the chest. I don't remember much of that moment, save for a sense of bitterness at dying for a village that hated me...and a raw, animalistic fury.

Then I felt it, monstrous rage pouring through my veins, my entire body red hot with power and my wounds vanishing. Opening my eyes, I looked at the enemy ninja standing terrified and saw...prey. A goddess fallen to earth, I ripped the spear out of me and shattered it with one squeeze. Then I attacked.

They didn't stand a chance. Every attack I batted aside, every jutsu I deflected. Their fists were weak, their speed pitiful. I tore through their defenses with ease, my hands ripping through their flesh like paper. Almost before I knew it, they laid dead at my feet.

Exalting in my newfound strength, I search eagerly for more foes. But it seemed that the fighting had left the arena, leaving me behind. I was alone.

The battle haze finally cleared a little, leaving me wondering what I should do next. Then, out of the corner of my eye, I saw a burning, orange energy surrounding my hands, which had taken the appearance of claws.

It was then that I heard it for the first time, a low, monstrous voice reeking of malice, echoing inside of my mind. "So brat, we meet at last..."

It was a voice that chilled my very soul. "W-who are you?"

My vision swam. I saw walls of flesh, a cage of steel, and inside it, two demonic eyes. The voice roared, rumbling like a thunderstorm, "At my steps, the earth QUAKES! At my breath, storms are UNLEASHED! My power is unmatched, my rage is without end, and the WORLD ITSELF TREMBLES IN TERROR AT THE THOUGHT OF MY AWAKENING! So tell me, brat, WHO AM I?"

It was then that I knew, whispering so quietly that it was more of a whimper than speech, "The Kyuubi."

It let out a laugh that rumbled, quaking through my very soul, and I saw huge jagged teeth twist into an immense, malevolent grin. "Indeed, and that was but a taste of my power. SERVE ME, and I shall bring your enemies to their KNEES!"

I quailed, terror turning my legs to jelly. But I forced myself to say, "I-I won't serve you!"

I feared that the Kyuubi would somehow would rip through that cage and devour me, but instead, it laughed again. Its voice sinister and sure, it said in a whisper that would echo through all of Konoha, "So you say now, but one day, when you are tired and weary, broken by hatred and bitterness, know that I will be be there. And when you agree to serve me, then you will have the vengeance you crave."

"I don't understand..." I whispered, uncomprehending.

Its grin widened further. "You will. Until then, enjoy your taste. We will meet again."

It slowly faded away, it's hellish cage morphing back into the arena once again. I could see even more bodies, and along the railing overlooking the arena were several Konoha jonin. I thought I recognized Naruto's sensei, Kakashi Hatake, his strange white hair sticking up like some weird broom. I was about to call out to him, but darkness overtook me, my chest screaming in pain as I collapsed into unconsciousness.

...X...

It wasn't for another few hours that I awoke. This time it was different though, as my body was pressed against something warm and solid, and I could feel the air wooshing past me. Opening my eyes, I saw a familiar, particularly distinctive head of hair through the gathering darkness of the evening. In a woozy voice I barely recognized as my own, I croaked out, "Sasuke, is that you?"

"Yes, it is," said Sasuke in a matter of fact tone of voice. "I'm carrying you on my back. How do you feel?"

"Like a giant spent half an hour pummeling every part of my body," I replied, tired and weak. Seeking warmth, I snuggled into him. "Why are you carrying me?"

He seemed to think that over, then said, "You needed someone to carry you home. I was there and Naruto couldn't so much as stand after his fight against Gaara."

"Oh... Thank you," I whispered, not knowing what had happened. I was too exhausted to care though, closing my eyes as I slurred out, "You're a truuue friend, Sasssuke."

Sasuke seemed lost for words for a few minutes, before finally saying, "I heard you took out several sound chunin... That was very good."

"Mmhmm," I mumbled, ready to sleep after a very long day.

It was as I slipped off into sleep that I heard him say, "You have grown strong indeed. I look forward to our next sparring session."

A smile on my face, I let the darkness claim me one more time.

**Author's Note: **And so ends part two of the prologue. After reading some of the feedback, I decided to adjust it a little to have scenes that were a little less...fast-forwarded. Chapter 1 has also been adjusted.

Now, to answer some reviews:

'Dont make Naruko a Mary sue and take the spot light. A k so you should of made naruto more Mature. Overprotective and Seroius if he have a sister. Considering the fact that she might be treated worse than him because she is a Girl. Not Sure how Female Jinjuriki are Treated.'

_I have no intention of making Naruko a Mary Sue character. Although the first several chapters are mostly from her point of view, that is in order to introduce her to the readers. After that, she will merely be part of an ensemble cast, containing four main characters. Although I could have written Naruto as Mature and Serious, I don't see why he would be. He is certainly protective and caring toward her, but his base personality shouldn't have changed much. There's no indication that Naruko would be treated worse because she is a girl in canon. In fact, all the previous hosts of the Kyuubi were women, at least since the founding of Konoha._

'Very interesting! :)'

_Thank you. :)_

'Nice... So...sasu naru paring?;

_Well, Naruko is paired with Sasuke. Does that count?_

'I think this does have potential, especially with the conflicts you've set up. Bearing in mind that I might not be your ideal audience, especially since I prefer a more cheerful, positive, in-character girl!Naruto, here are my criticisms:

1) Too much retelling as opposed to showing. I know you've chosen the first person style of recounting for speed, which I can totally understand, having multiple fanfictions threatening to be novel length myself. However, here it weakens her interactions with Naruto, Sasuke, and her teammates.

2) And this relates to the above: establishing a stronger connection between Naruto/Naruko. Show them bantering, doing brother/sisterly things, sharing goals, supporting each other. If the crux of the fanfic conflict is going to be Naruto trying to save his sister, there should be a stronger connection established between them. Consider the actual Naruto/Sasuke friendship established in the manga through the Bell Test, Wave Arc, and Chunin Exams before Sasuke defects for emotional impact. So yeah, this development shouldn't be rushed.

Anyway, good luck with this fanfic! Adding to the girl!Naruto fanfic amount is a worthy endeavour. :)'

_Thank you for the very thorough review. As I replied in the PM, I agree with a lot of your criticisms and have made some edits and changes to it after thinking about it. Sadly, I felt I couldn't make Naruko as much like canon!Naruto as I would have preferred, as Naruto is still much like his canon self. I hope this is more to your liking._


End file.
